leaned back in his seat. "I know you're wondering what this is about."
That was an understatement. She tried to look nonchalant.
"Word isn't out yet, but Power House has been sold to Omni Vortex out of Minneapolis. The Fairbrook plant will just be a satellite outpost."
For this he had invited her to lunch? This is what he couldn't tell her over the phone? What a fool she'd been to think it was something more.
"You're moving to Minnesota?"
He shook his head. "Hell, no. There can be only one CEO. The Omni guy is keeping the job and I'm not about to take a step down. I'm retiring."
Her stomach flip-flopped. She couldn't see any way this conversation was going in the right direction.
He leaned back. "Charlotte, we'll have to reduce your support payments since I won't be working."
The sip of martini she had taken went down Charlotte's windpipe. She started to cough spasmodically. Craig got up to pat her on the back, but she shook him off. When she'd regained her composure, she pressed her hands on the table to get up, then sat back down. She spoke as calmly as she could. "I didn't ask you for an increase when you started making a lot of money, and I can't believe you're even suggesting this now. I tried to play fair and I expect you to do the same. I'm not some business competitor. I was your wife for twenty-eight years."
He knitted his brows in what she recognized as his 'sincere' look. "I don't want to hurt you, Charlotte. I'm warning, no that's not the word - I’m 'advising' -you that I won't be able to keep up the payments. I'll be sixty next June. At my age, I can't expect to find another position making the kind of salary I've been earning. Especially with the downturn in the economy. And it's going to get worse. Power House is going to lay off nearly two thousand people."
Charlotte was shocked. "How can you do that to your employees?"
He shrugged. "The work is leaving." He tried to take her hand, but she pulled back. "Of course, you'll still get support from me. Just not as much. We're all going to have to make some adjustments in our lifestyle."
"I already live simply. I'm taking care of everything I used to pay people to do." She counted on her fingers: "My house, the yard, the car," she brushed her hand over her hair, "my hair."
"You could get a job."
Was he out of his mind? "Who's going to hire a fifty-three year old with no experience? Besides, you just told me the jobs are leaving."
Craig tucked his napkin into his collar. "There's one other thing. I want to sell the house."
So that was it. Charlotte felt as if her heart had stopped. "My house?"
"It's half mine too."
"Not really."
"According to the divorce decree it is."
"But you know ... "
"I know what the judge ordered. Look, I let you stay after Brad graduated. You didn't think I meant forever, did you?"
Well yes, she did. Craig lived with his bimbo wife and their daughter in a palatial home in Fairbrook Highlands, the best part of town. Why in the world would he need a piece of her house? Especially since he had lied and cheated to get it.
Her home, a comfortable two story farm house with gables and a wraparound porch, had been left to her by her father. But despite Charlotte's vigorous objections in court, since both names were on the deed, the judge had ordered it sold and the proceeds split as soon as their son graduated from high school. When Craig said nothing since Brad's graduation, she assumed he'd had a change of heart.
"Why now?" she asked when she caught her breath.
"You're sitting on a big chunk of my assets. When the layoffs start in this town, house prices are going to tank. I want to sell before word gets out."
"I can't believe you'd do this to me."
"As I recall, you're the one that wanted the divorce."
"I had good reason," she snapped.
He wrinkled his brow as if this topic pained him as much as it did her. "I would have broken it off."
"I'll tell you what you should have broken off."
"Sarcasm isn't like you, Charlotte."
I know. I was the perfect wife, she thought. And look where that got me. "People change."
Charlotte signaled for the waiter. "Wrap this up to go," she said indicating her plate.
"You haven't touched anything," Craig said.
"I've lost my appetite." Her pets would dine lavishly tonight. "By the way, if you need the money so badly, why don't you send What's-her-name out to work? As her former boss, you can give her a good reference."
"Don't be childish. It's beneath you. Besides, that wouldn't solve anything. Caprice couldn't earn enough to pay for child care for Cassie."
Ouch. That stung. The mention of his other child. Except at the graduation, their own two hadn't heard from him since the divorce. She toyed with the steak knife. She felt like using it on him. "You won't be working. You can babysit."
"Very funny. Listen, Charlotte, I want to do this amicably. You don't want to battle this out in court and have the money eaten up in lawyers' fees."
The waiter returned with Charlotte's lunch. She stood and took the bag.
"You can't go," Craig said. "We haven't finished talking."
"I have." She grabbed her purse.
"Walking out won't solve anything."
"I'm not feeling very amicable right now." She'd been an idiot to expect good news. She should have known Craig better than that. And to think she had wondered if she would take him back. Well, at least she wouldn't have to make that decision.
At two o'clock the next afternoon, Charlotte sat in the fifth floor office of her divorce attorney. She chewed her lip nervously as Paul McBride sat across from her behind his massive desk and perused her file through rimless half-glasses. In the past three years his face had grown ruddier and fuller. His jowls waggled as he reviewed the court order that had cemented the dissolution of her marriage.
Finally, he set the papers down. "The best I can suggest is you buy out his share."
Charlotte shook her head. "There's no way."
"I don't see any alternative." He tilted back in his chair as if that was the end of it.
"He doesn't need my house. He has one twice as big."
"That's irrelevant."
Charlotte folded her arms."It's not fair."
"That's also irrelevant."
"That house was mine. My grandfather built it. My father left it to me."
"As
